Family Matters
by Xandrabelle
Summary: Fruits Basket angst. Centres around Momiji though Yuki, Tohru and Hattori show up. It's a story about the importance of family. Set about 10 years after the end of the anime.


Summary: Fruits Basket angst. Centres around Momiji though Yuki, Tohru and Hattori show up. Its a story about the importance of family. Set about 10 years after the end of the anime.

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Takaya Natsuki. All these lovely bishounen are not mine, too bad. No profit is being made from this story. 

Spoilers: Episode 15 of the anime.

~~~~~

A slow procession was winding its way up the hill. A long row of mourners was solemnly marching in step behind the temple priests chanting out prayers. From the length of the procession, the one this sending off was for appeared to have been an important man. Certainly the family was extended, evident from the hundreds of people making their way to the cemetery. 

Arriving at the destination, the mourners moved out and clustered around a set of gravestones all bearing the Souma family marker. Subdued, the group silently observed the temple priests go about performing the last rites. Chants filled the air, accompanied by drum beats and chimes. The strong smell of incense permeated the cemetery. 

Most of the crowd's attention was on the principal mourners - two women, a mother and daughter. They were holding tightly on to each other as they sobbed quietly in sorrow. But an equal number of eyes were focused on a young man standing to the side and back. He was doing a fine job of keeping a calm front, but the forlorn look in his eyes betrayed his true distress. 

Eventually the last rites were completed and the sympathizers began coming forward to bid their final good-byes. The two women had regained their composure and were quietly thanking everyone. As the family began moving forward then dispersing, it was soon obvious that the ebb and flow of the mourners was swirling around a small group among the gathered. It could be noted that no one said anything to them nor even acknowledged them beyond a significant nod. 

Certainly they were worth a second look. The group, numbering 13 in all, mostly men though several women were included, were stunning in their collective beauty. They were protectively clustered around the young blonde haired man, who looked a great deal younger than his 25 years.

"Are you strong enough, Momiji?" Hattori asked his cousin, hand on his shoulder.

"I am." Momiji replied. "I have to do this." 

Momiji squared his shoulders and stepped forward. Even so, his courage failed him momentarily and he faltered. But when Hattori came up and placed a hand on his arm, he shook it off and moved forward.

The crowd parted as he approached the gravesite. The two women standing by its the side bowed to him. The elder spoke up, "Thank you for coming, Momiji-san." She was speaking as if by rote, numbed from the day's events. But her daughter's eyes were boring into Momiji's face.

Momiji started, and looked down, not wanting her to see how much her simple words had hurt him. After a pregnant pause, he managed to choke out, "I'm very sorry ma'am." He turned his gaze to the headstone where a picture of his handsome father smiled back at him. "Goodbye sir," he whispered before whirling around and stumbling back to his cousins. 

12 pairs of anxious eyes greeted him as he moved back into their circle. And it was a pair of violet ones who came forward. If Momiji had grown up into a handsome young man, then Souma Yuki was transcendentally beautiful. With compassion in his eyes, Yuki wordlessly held out his hand and Momiji grasped it like a desperate man in a desert being offered water. He allowed himself to be led away from the group towards a large tree by the side of the cemetery.

"You can cry now if you want," Yuki said quietly.

As if that was all the permission he needed, Momiji's large eyes filled with tears as he broke down. Yuki slung an arm around his cousin and let him sob into his shoulder. 

"It's not fair, what am I going to do now he's dead?" Momiji cried brokenly.

"You grieve." Yuki replied.

"He promised me that he would love me enough for Mama's share, and now he's gone and I have no one!" 

"That's not true. You have us. You will always have us." Yuki promised.

"Do you know what he told me just before he died? His concern was still entirely for her. He asked me never to tell her who I was because he didn't want her to be upset again. And I agreed even though my heart screamed against it." Momiji sobbed.

"I know you had your wish," Yuki acknowledged.

"Yes, I didn't want my Mama to forget me! Why did she have to reject me? What did I ever do wrong?" Momiji asked pitifully.

"You did nothing wrong. That's why this is a curse - that cause so many of our mothers to reject us." Yuki held onto Momiji, rocking his cousin like a child. He thought it was simply the cruelest of fates for their mothers to discover that their precious children transformed into animals at birth, from the first time they're placed in their mothers' arms. Two outcomes were possible, either the mothers rejected them or became overprotective. For the rejected, it was usually the first and last time they would ever be held by their mothers. 

"All these years I've watched her from afar, hoping and hoping. But she never saw me!" Momiji was shaking his head in anger. "I can't take anymore of this. It's just too much for me to stand there and have my own mother thank ME for coming to my father's funeral!"

"And yet this is our burden to bear." Yuki's bald statement fell like a shard of broken glass on Momiji's heart. Momiji stilled as the truth of the words sunk in.

Momiji's shoulders slumped in defeat. He knew there was no protesting against fate. It wasn't as if he was any worse off from his cousins - all of them had had to sacrifice. The curse forbade intimacy. Hattori and Shigure had given up the love of their lives thanks to the curse. For himself, all he had ever wanted was for his own mother to love him. Many of those within the family, who carried the name of Souma, couldn't find it in their hearts to accept them, the cursed ones. What more outsiders who would never understand. His beautiful German mother had been an outsider and she had turned from him. He remembered the hurt he had felt when he overheard his mother saying that the only thing she ever regretted was giving birth to him. The only one who had ever accepted the Jyuunishi unconditionally had been Honda Tohru.

Suddenly Yuki stiffened as he noticed the girl walking towards them. He pushed Momiji away from him and indicated with a nod of his head the approaching figure. Momiji turned and looked, then quickly whirled back around to dash the tears from his eyes.

"Ano, Momiji-san, can I talk to you?" the girl asked.

Momiji took a moment to gather his thoughts. He wasn't sure why this girl would seek him out now. "Of course, Momo," he answered his sister with a false tone of cheer.

The beautiful blonde girl who was the mirror image of her mother paused to study Momiji before bluntly asking, "What is my mother to you?"

Momiji and Yuki gasped at the question. Momiji looked at his cousin, wondering how he was going to answer her. "Your father was a Souma, I am a Souma. We are all related." He hoped the vague answer would be enough to satisfy her.

Momo shook her long curls from her face. "No I asked, what is my mother to you," she pressed.

Momiji stared at her for a full minute. Finally he sighed inwardly and lied, "She is nothing."

"No. I don't believe you. Why do you have that look in your eyes whenever you look at her? Don't think I haven't seen you watching her, I have!" Momo protested hotly.

Momiji simply looked sadly back at her. His promise to his father held him firm. 

When Momiji failed to reply her, Momo continued, "Why do you look so much like us?" Her eyes begged him to tell her the truth.

"It's a Souma trait, nothing more. There are things you don't know about this family that I can't tell you. You're better off not knowing them." It was the most Momiji would allow himself to tell her.

"Secrets, secrets - the Soumas are filled with secrets. Everybody treats you and your cousins differently. What's so special about you all?" Momo demanded.

That brought a bitter laugh to Momiji's lips. "Special? There's nothing special about us at all. Why don't you say cursed instead? Believe me I would change positions with you in a heartbeat." 

Yuki thought this was all going a bit too far. "Momiji," he called in warning. 

Momiji was startled from his tirade. He lapsed into silence, knowing that he might have revealed too much.

"I... don't understand..." Momo looked confused.

Momiji sighed. "It's best this way. Your father was very dear to me. He asked that I look after the two of you. Can you please just leave it at that? It's really for the best."

Momo saw the determination in Momiji's eyes and knew she would get no more from him. She turned as if to walk away but suddenly moved back, catching the two men off guard. She gasped when she saw the fresh tear sliding down Momiji's cheek. Instinctively she lunged forward and hugged him.

The resulting puff of smoke and the startled rabbit in her arms brought a scream of shock rising to Momo's lips. Fortunately Yuki was there and quickly brought his hand across her mouth, muffling the sound. 

The rabbit struggled and fell from her arms. Tears were spilling from his red eyes again. He lay there limply on the grass, too upset to move.

Momo struggled out of Yuki's hold and cried in astonished tones, "What's going on?"

Yuki scooped the rabbit up and pointed to the bundle of Momiji's clothes on the ground. "Pick that up," he ordered as he hurried to the other side of the tree in hopes of getting out of sight.

Stunned, Momo did as she was told, then peered around the tree at Yuki. "Where's Momiji?"

Before Yuki could think up a plausable excuse, Momiji reappeared in a cloud of smoke. Yuki spent the next few moments busily extracting the clothes from Momo's clutches while muffling her scream once again. "Get dressed," he told Momiji curtly as he tossed his clothes at him. Yuki was metaphorically shaking his head as he wondered how to get them out of this fix.

"Will you tell me what's going on?" Momo demanded as she batted Yuki's hand away.

At the same time, a cautious voice spoke from behind them. "Are you guys alright?"

Yuki swung around with relief at the sound. "Tohru." Somehow he felt reassured whenever Tohru was around, it was as if all his problems melted away before her optimism.

A quick glance at the scene before Honda Tohru told her exactly what happened. Momiji was still sitting on the ground dragging his clothes on, a sheepish expression on his face. Souma Momo though appeared to be on the edge of hysteria. Quickly Tohru pulled Momo into a hug and said soothingly, "It's all right. We'll explain everything to you. Just take a deep breath first."

The contact calmed Momo down. With a shaking hand, she pointed at Momiji, "Why is he a rabbit?"

"Because he is. Has no one told you about the curse of the Jyuunishi?" Tohru asked surprised.

Momo shook her head dumbly.

"The Souma family is cursed with a vengeful spirit that makes 13 of its family members turn into animals when hugged by the opposite sex. Any Souma family member can fall victim to it." Tohru explained succinctly.

Yuki was standing off to one side, his head bowed listening to Tohru describe the darkest secret of the Soumas.

"And I think you've guessed who Momiji is." said Tohru sadly. Momiji was looking hopefully at his sister, wondering if she could accept him.

"Who... who am I to you?" Momo looked back and forth between the two of them, increasingly terrified of the answer. 

"My Imouto..." The words slipped from Momiji's lips.

Hearing him, Momo cried out. "How can this be, why did nobody ever tell me?" 

Tohru looked resigned. "After your mother had Momiji, she grew frantic and upset. Everyone was afraid she would hurt herself. Eventually, she asked for her memory of him to be taken away. The only one who ever knew was your father," she explained.

"And now he's gone..." Momo whispered as the terrible truth struck her. "Oh Momiji, I never knew." 

"It's alright. Nobody could tell you because you would have somehow let the secret out to Mama. And Papa didn't want Mama to get sick again." Momiji eyes were downcast. "You can never tell Mama, please."

"How can I not? This is a terrible thing she has done to you! To us!" Momo couldn't understand how her brother had ever borne the pain of rejection. 

"You can never tell because it was her choice to forget me. Until she chooses to remember me again, I will accept her decision. And you must as well. Promise me!"

Momo's lips trembled at the force in Momiji's words. In a small voice she answered, "I promise."

Momiji smiled. "I'm sorry I missed so much of you growing up. I'm sorry we were never allowed to know each other."

Momo reached out her hand. "Do I have to continue to pretend not to know you? Can we at least be friends?"

"I should like that very much." Momiji replied and took the hand that she offered. "Friends then..."

"And family," Momo finished the sentence. Holding on to her brother's hand, the two siblings made their way back to the final resting place of their father.

~ Owari ~ 

Notes: This story is dedicated to Aishuu on the occasion of her birthday. Many happy returns and here's wishing you a wonderful year ahead. I'm afraid this stories was angsty but then most of my fics are. I cried and cried for Momiji the first time I saw his story in Episode 15 of Fruits Basket. He was always so genki but the underlying sadness of his situation totally affected me. Even now I can't understand how his mother could have rejected him. But I wanted him to at least have someone love him so this story is a little gift to him, because I understand how important family is to him. Hope you enjoyed it. 


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